Biography | Barbara Hepworth Barbara Hepworth Links Copyright All images and texts included on this website are protected by copyright. They may be reproduced for personal or educational use only. Biography Life and Work by Alan Bowness is a comprehensive overview in 2,500 words Chronology 1903 Born 10 January in Wakefield, Yorkshire, the eldest child of Herbert and Gertrude (née Johnson) Hepworth. Her father is a civil engineer for the West Riding County Council, who in 1921 became County Surveyor. As a girl, Hepworth accompanies him on the car journeys he makes all over the West Riding of Yorkshire in the course of his work. 1909–20 Attends Wakefield Girls' High School. Music scholarship, 1915. Open Scholarship, 1917. Summer holidays at Robin Hood's Bay, near Whitby, North Yorkshire. 1920–21 Leeds School of Art; Henry Moore is a fellow student. 1921–24 Studies sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London. Together with Moore and other students at the College, makes occasional trips to Paris.

Awarded the diploma of the Royal College of Art in the summer of 1923; stays on an extra year to compete for the Prix de Rome (John Skeaping is the winner). 1924 Awarded a West Riding Scholarship for one year's travel abroad. October, Hepworth travels to Italy. Based in Florence, she spends the first months studying Romanesque and early Renaissance art and architecture in Tuscany. November, short visit to Rome. 1925 In Siena, February–March. Marries sculptor John Skeaping in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, in May. They stay in Florence for three months, then live at the British School in Rome, where Skeaping is a Rome Scholar in Sculpture, until November 1926. Hepworth learns to carve marble from the master-carver Giovanni Ardini. Visits Carrara. 1926 November, Hepworth and Skeaping return to London due to Skeaping's ill-health. 1927 Studio exhibition with Skeaping at their flat in St Ann's Terrace, St John's Wood, in December. The collector George Eumorfopoulos buys Seated Figure and Mother and Child.

1928 January, Hepworth and Skeaping move to 7 The Mall, Parkhill Road, Hampstead. Hepworth would remain in this studio until 1939. June, exhibition at the Beaux Arts Gallery, London, shared with John Skeaping and William Morgan. 1929 3 August, birth of son, Paul Skeaping. 1930 October–November, joint exhibition with John Skeaping at Arthur Tooth & Sons' Galleries, London 1931 Meets the painter Ben Nicholson. Summer holiday at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast with Skeaping, Nicholson, Henry and Irina Moore, Ivon Hitchens. Separation from Skeaping (they are divorced in March 1933). 1932 Shows with the Seven and Five Society; Hepworth is a member until the group is dissolved in 1935. Spring, Ben Nicholson begins to live and work with Hepworth in the Mall studio. Hepworth and Nicholson seriously consider moving to Paris. August, short visit to Dieppe with Nicholson. November–December, shared exhibition with Nicholson at Arthur Tooth & Sons' Galleries, London (catalogue foreword on Hepworth by Herbert Read).

Hepworth's first holed sculpture, Pierced Form, probably carved in 1932, is exhibited there with the title Abstraction (it was subsequently destroyed in the war). 1933 In France with Nicholson in April, Hepworth meets Brancusi at his studio in Paris, visits Arp's studio at Meudon (Arp himself is absent) and travels to Avignon and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence; on their return, they visit Picasso in his Paris studio. Invited by Herbin and Hélion to become a member of the Paris-based group Abstraction-Création, with which Hepworth exhibits in 1934. September, short visit to Dieppe with Nicholson to see Braque at nearby Varengeville. October–November, shared exhibition with Ben Nicholson at Alex. Reid & Lefevre Ltd., London. 1934 April, exhibition of the group Unit One, of which both Hepworth and Nicholson are members, at the Mayor Gallery, London. This coincides with the publication of Unit One: the Modern Movement in English Architecture, Painting and Sculpture, edited by Herbert Read. Hepworth contributes a statement to the book.

The exhibition travels to Liverpool, Manchester, Hanley, Derby, Swansea and Belfast. October 3, birth of triplets, Simon, Rachel and Sarah Hepworth-Nicholson. 1935 In Paris in January, meets Mondrian and Kandinsky. Travels to Luzern with Nicholson in February for the opening of the exhibition Thèse Antithèse Synthèse. July, meets Naum Gabo in London. October, final '7 & 5' exhibition at Zwemmer Gallery, London. Begins to contribute works to anti-fascist exhibitions. 1936 Abstract & Concrete exhibition opens in Oxford in February. It includes the work of Mondrian, Kandinsky, Arp, Giacometti, Miró, Calder, Moholy-Nagy, Hélion, Nicholson, Hepworth, Moore and Gabo and travels to Liverpool, Newcastle, London (Alex. Reid & Lefevre Ltd) and Cambridge. Meets Arp in London on the occasion of the International Surrealist exhibition. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquires its first Hepworth, Discs in Echelon (1935, darkwood).

Friendship with Moholy-Nagy, Gropius, Erni, Ozenfant. 1937 Publication of Circle: International Survey of Constructive Art, edited by the architect J.L. Martin, Ben Nicholson and the sculptor Naum Gabo, and designed by Hepworth and Sadie Martin. Hepworth's text Sculpture is included in it. Publication of Circle coincides with the exhibition Constructive Art at the London Gallery. July–August, short holiday with Nicholson in Varengeville, near Dieppe, at the invitation of Alexander Calder; they see Braque and Miró there. October, first one-person exhibition held at Alex. Reid & Lefevre, London (catalogue introduction by the physicist J.D. Bernal). 1938 April, shows in the Abstract Art exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. September, Mondrian arrives in London: Nicholson and Hepworth help him to find a room near them in Parkhill Road, where he stays until his departure for New York in 1940. Marriage to Ben Nicholson in November, following his divorce from his first wife, Winifred.

At this time, Hepworth is interested in ideas for large-scale works: her first large carving is Monumental Stele, 1936. The Project (Monument to the Spanish Civil War) (1938–9, wood, 178 cm, destroyed in war) reflects her commitment to the Republican cause. 1939 Participates in the exhibitions Living Art in England at the London Gallery and Abstract and Concrete Art at Guggenheim Jeune, London. Just before the outbreak of war, on 25 August, Hepworth and Nicholson arrive in St Ives, Cornwall, with their triplets, at the invitation of Adrian Stokes and his wife Margaret Mellis. Naum and Miriam Gabo soon join them, and stay until 1946. After Christmas, the Hepworth-Nicholson family moves to Dunluce, a nearby house in Carbis Bay. In these cramped conditions, and with little time to work, Hepworth draws and makes plaster sculptures at night. Unable to make major work until 1943. 1940 In November, bombs damage the Mall studio, destroying works left there.

1942 Exhibits in New Movements in Art at the London Museum, March–May. Hepworth, Nicholson and their family move to a larger house, Chy-an-Kerris, Carbis Bay, in July. Hepworth has a studio there and can carve in the garden. 1943 First retrospective exhibition, held at Temple Newsam, Leeds, April–June. Kathleen Raine's Stone and Flower: Poems 1935–43 is published with drawings by Hepworth. 1944 February–April, exhibition at Wakefield City Art Gallery, travelling to Halifax. 1946 Exhibition at the Lefevre Gallery, London, in October. William Gibson's Barbara Hepworth: Sculptress is published by Faber and Faber. Hepworth's Approach to Sculpture is published in the review Studio in October. 1947 Begins to draw operations in hospitals. Makes maquettes for four sculptures on the new Waterloo Bridge in London, in a limited competition organised by the London County Council (no commissions were given). Shows at the second Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in Paris.

1948 April, exhibition of paintings at the Lefevre Gallery, London. Shows at first Open Air Exhibition of Sculpture in Battersea Park, London, May–September. 1949 September, Hepworth buys Trewyn Studio in St Ives, where she lives permanently from December 1950 until her death (it is now the Barbara Hepworth Museum, opened by her family in 1976 and since 1980 an outpost of the Tate Gallery). Exhibition at Durlacher Bros., New York, in October. Founder member of the Penwith Society of Arts in Cornwall. Beginning of friendship with South African-born composer Priaulx Rainier. Takes on permanent assistants for the first time – the artists Denis Mitchell, John Wells and Terry Frost are the earliest of these. 1950 Exhibition New Sculpure and Drawings by Barbara Hepworth at the Lefevre Gallery in February. Shows in the British Pavilion at the XXV Venice Biennale: Hepworth visits Venice in June for the opening. The Tate Gallery acquires its first Hepworth sculpture, Bicentric Form, 1949.

1951 At the Festival of Britain, Hepworth's sculptures Contrapuntal Forms (an Arts Council commission) and Turning Forms are shown on London's South Bank. Exhibits in the open air sculpture exhibition in Battersea Park, May–September. Designs sets and costumes for Sophocles' Electra, directed by Michel St. Denis at the Old Vic Theatre, London. Retrospective at Wakefield City Art Gallery, travelling to York and Manchester. Vertical Forms commissioned for Hatfield Technical College, Hertfordshire. Marriage to Ben Nicholson dissolved in October. 1952 Publication of major monograph Barbara Hepworth: Carvings and Drawings, with an introduction by Herbert Read and statements by the artist. Exhibition at the Lefevre Gallery, London, in October. 1953 13 February, death of son Paul in RAF plane crash over Thailand. Awarded a second prize in Unknown Political Prisoner competition, organised by the Institute of Contemporary Arts. Carves Monolith (Empyrean) as a memorial to Paul and his navigator.

Sited outside the Festival Hall in 1954 and acquired by the London County Council in 1959 (at Kenwood since 1961). The St Ives Festival, of which Hepworth and the composers Michael Tippett and Priaulx Rainier are co-founders, is held in June. Film Figures in a Landscape: Cornwall and the Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth made by Dudley Shaw Ashton for the British Film Institute, with music by Priaulx Rainier. 1954 April–June, major retrospective at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. Madonna and Child , carved in memory of her son Paul, is unveiled in St Ives Parish Church. In August, visits Greece with her friend and patron, Margaret Gardiner (Athens, Epidauros, Mycenae, Delphi, Crete, Rhodes, Cos, Patmos, Delos, Santorini). Receives a large consignment of guarea wood from Nigeria. 1955 January, first performances of Michael Tippett's opera The Midsummer Marriage at the Royal Opera House, with sets and costumes by Hepworth.

1955–7 Exhibition organised by Martha Jackson opens at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; travels to Nebraska, San Francisco, Buffalo, Toronto, Montreal, Baltimore, Washington D.C. and, with additions, the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York, December 1956–January 1957. 1956 First one-person exhibition at Gimpel Fils in London in June. Begins to work in sheet metal and bronze. Orpheus (Theme on Electronics) commissioned for Mullard House, London. 1958 Created C.B.E. in New Year's Honours List. Ben Nicholson leaves St Ives for Switzerland. Exhibition at Gimpel Fils, London, in June. Major bronze sculpture Meridian commissioned for State House, London. 1959 Exhibition organised by the British Council opens at the fifth São Paulo Bienal in September: Hepworth is awarded the major prize. The exhibition travels throughout South America in 1960. Visits New York for the first time in October for her exhibition at the Galerie Chalette. To Paris to complete work on Meridian, which is being cast by Susse Frères.

Begins to work with the Morris Singer foundry in London. 1960 Meridian is unveiled at State House, Holborn, London, in March (4.6 m high; now at PepsiCo Headquarters, Purchase, New York State). October, to Zurich for her exhibition at the Galerie Charles Lienhard. 1961 February, acquires the Palais de Danse, a former cinema and dance hall, opposite Trewyn Studio for use as a workshop, especially for works to be cast in bronze, and as a store and display space. Barbara Hepworth: Life and Work published, with a text by J. P. Hodin and a catalogue of the sculptures compiled by her son-in-law Alan Bowness. BBC television film Barbara Hepworth directed by John Read. Exhibition at Gimpel Fils, London, May–June. 1962 May–June, second exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, of work made between 1952 and 1962. 1963 Winged Figure is unveiled on the John Lewis department store, Oxford Street, London (commissioned 1961, aluminium, 5.8 m high).

Hepworth wins the Foreign Minister's Award at the 7th Tokyo Biennale. Michael Shepherd's monograph, Barbara Hepworth, is published. Exhibition in Zurich at the Gimpel Hanover Galerie, November–January 1964. 1964 June, Hepworth attends the unveiling of the monumental Single Form at the United Nations Secretariat in New York, commissioned in memory of her friend Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary General of the United Nations, who had been killed in 1961. Exhibition at Gimpel Fils, London, in June. Visits Copenhagen in September for the opening of her exhibition organised by the British Council; it travels throughout Scandinavia. 1965 May, attends opening of her retrospective exhibition in the Rietveld Pavilion, Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, Netherlands. Made a Dame Commander of the British Empire. Appointed a Trustee of the Tate Gallery (until 1972), the first female trustee. Cancer of the tongue is diagnosed; Hepworth is treated at Westminster Hospital, London.

1966 Barbara Hepworth: Drawings from a Sculptor's Landscape is published, with Hepworth's text A Sculptor's Landscape and an introduction to the drawings by Alan Bowness. Exhibitions at Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, and at Gimpel Fils, London. 1967 Breaks femur in Scilly Isles in June: this was to cause her lasting mobility problems. Film made on Hepworth by Westward Television. 1968 Major retrospective exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London, April–May. A.M. Hammacher's Barbara Hepworth is published by Thames and Hudson (revised edition, 1987). Receives honorary degree from Oxford University in June. Made a Bard of Cornwall in a ceremony at St Just-in-Penwith in September: takes the bardic name of 'Gravyor' ('sculptor' in Cornish). Honorary Freedom of the Borough of St Ives conferred on Hepworth and her friend the potter Bernard Leach, accompanied by exhibitions of their work in the town. 1970 Barbara Hepworth: A Pictorial Autobiography published.

The Family of Man, a major nine-part bronze, is completed. Exhibition at Marlborough Fine Art, London, in February–March. Exhibition at the Hakone Open-Air Museum, Japan, June–September. Awarded Grand Prix at Salon International de la Femme, Nice. 1971 The Complete Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth 1960–69, edited by Alan Bowness, is published. Hepworth creates three important groups of prints between 1969 and 1971, culminating in The Aegean Suite, a set of nine lithographs published by Curwen Prints in 1971. 1972 Theme and Variations , a three-part bronze relief, is unveiled on façade of Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society Head Office in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Exhibition at Marlborough Fine Art, London, in April–May, including The Family of Man . 1973 Hepworth celebrates her 70th birthday in St Ives. Elected Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. 1974 Exhibition at Marlborough Gallery, New York, in March–April.

1975 20 May, Hepworth dies in an accidental fire at Trewyn Studio, aged 72. Sophie Bowness Note: This chronology is partly derived from that compiled by the artist herself and used in her late catalogues. Hepworth as a baby with her parents, paternal grandmother and paternal great-grandmother Hepworth aged 10 at school In Paris with Henry Moore (centre) and Edna Ginesi (left), 1920 At the Royal College of Art, aged 18 In Siena, 1924 With John Skeaping at the British School in Rome With her son Paul, 1929 Hepworth carving Head , 1930 Happisburgh, Norfolk, September 1931. From left to right: Ivon Hitchens, Irina Moore, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Mary Jenkins. Photograph by Douglas Jenkins Ben Nicholson at Happisburgh, 1931. Photograph by Hepworth Hepworth's sculpture studio at 7 The Mall, Summer 1933.

Photograph by Paul Laib (courtesy Witt Library, Courtauld Institute of Art, London) In the Mall, 1933. Photograph Paul Laib (courtesy Witt Library, Courtauld Institute of Art, London) The triplets, Simon, Rachel and Sarah, 1937. Photograph by Hepworth Hepworth in the Mall studio, c. 1938. Photograph by Hans Erni Hepworth carving, 1949 Hepworth carving Pendour at Chy-an-Kerris, Carbis Bay, 1947. Photograph probably taken by Ben Nicholson Hepworth with The Cosdon Head , 1949. Photograph by Hans Wild Contrapuntal Forms on London's South Bank during the Festival of Britain, 1951 Hepworth with Figure (Churinga) , 1952 Hepworth at her Whitechapel exhibition, 1954, with Monolith (Empyrean) Madonna and Child, Bianco del Mare, 1954 (BH 193), St Ives Parish Church Hepworth in the garden at Trewyn Studio, 1957.

Photograph Studio St Ives Hepworth in Trewyn Studio, St Ives, 1958. Photograph by Michel Ramon Hepworth in Trewyn garden with Cantate Domino (BH 244), c. 1958 Interior of Trewyn Studio, January 1959 Hepworth outside the workshops at Trewyn, June 1960 Hepworth with the plaster of Garden Sculpture (Model for Meridian) (BH 246) in the garden at Trewyn, June 1960 Hepworth with Coré (plaster for bronze), c. 1960 Hepworth in the Palais de Danse, St Ives, March 1961 Hepworth with (BH 263) in Trewyn garden, 1961. Photograph by Rosemary Mathews Hepworth carving in the Palais de Danse, 1961. Photograph by Rosemary Mathews Hepworth with Curved Reclining Form (Rosewall) (BH 291) at Trewyn, 1961.

Photograph by Ida Kar Hepworth at work on the armature of a sculpture in the Palais de Danse, 1961. 2 photographs by Ida Kar Hepworth drawing on Rosewall, above St Ives (from John Read's BBC Television film Barbara Hepworth, 1961) Winged Figure on the John Lewis Building, Oxford Street, London, 1963 Whitechapel Art Gallery retrospective, May 1962, with Curved Reclining Form (Rosewall) Hepworth in the Palais studio in 1963 with unfinished wood carving Hollow Form with White Interior (BH 328). 2 photographs by Val Wilmer Hepworth in the Palais studio in 1963 at work on Oval Form (Trezion) (BH 304). 2 photographs by Val Wilmer Hepworth with plaster of Sphere with Inner Form (BH 333) in the Palais, 1963 Hepworth outside her studios, 1964. Photograph by Paul Schutzer At work on plasters in the Palais de Danse, April 1964.

Photograph by Paul Schutzer Hepworth working on the armature of the United Nations Single Form in the Palais de Danse, January 1963 Unveiling ceremony for Single Form , United Nations Secretariat, New York, 11 June 1964. Hepworth is seated behind the podium Single Form at the United Nations Secretariat, New York, 11 June 1964 Hepworth on the harbour, St Ives, May 1964. Photograph by Lee Sheldrake. Courtesy of the St Ives Trust Archive Study Centre In the Palais de Danse, November 1964. Photograph by Lucien Myers View of the Hepworth retrospective at the Rietveld Pavilion in the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, 1965, with Sphere with Inner Form (BH 333) in the foreground Figure for Landscape, 1960 (BH 287). Photographed on the steps of the Tate Gallery, London, during Hepworth's 1968 Tate retrospective Hepworth outside the workshops at Trewyn, 1968.

Photograph by Peter Kinnear Hepworth in July 1972, St Ives. Photograph by Peter Kinnear Carving tools Dame Barbara Hepworth 1903–1975 | Tate Artist biography Barbara Hepworth 1903-75 Of a middle-class family from the West Riding of Yorkshire, Barbara Hepworth was born in Wakefield on 10 January 1903; her father, Herbert Hepworth, would become County Surveyor and an Alderman. She trained in sculpture at Leeds School of Art (1920-1) and, on a county scholarship, at the Royal College of Art (1921-4), meeting the painters Raymond Coxon and Edna Ginesi and the sculptor Henry Moore. Hepworth was runner-up to John Skeaping for the 1924 Prix de Rome, but travelled to Florence on a West Riding Travel Scholarship. After visiting Rome and Siena with Skeaping, they were married in Florence on 13 May 1925 and moved to Rome, where both began carving stone. In November 1926, they returned to London.

Links forged through the British School at Rome with the sculptor Richard Bedford (a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum), ensured that the collector George Eumorfopoulos visited their studio show in 1927 and bought two Hepworths. The couple moved to 7 The Mall Studios in Hampstead in 1928 (where Hepworth remained until 1939). With Bedford and Moore, they became leading figures in the 'new movement' associated with direct carving . Successful joint exhibitions in 1928 (Beaux Arts Gallery, London and Alex. Reid and Lefevre, Glasgow) and 1930 (Tooth's) consisted of animal and figure sculptures in stone and wood. They joined the London Group and the 7 & 5 Society in 1930-1. A son, Paul, was born in August 1929, but the marriage was deteriorating and in 1931 Hepworth met Ben Nicholson (then married to Winifred Nicholson), who joined her on holiday at Happisburgh, Norfolk. She and Skeaping were amicably divorced in 1933.

In 1934 Hepworth gave birth to triplets; she married Nicholson four years later. Hepworth and Nicholson revealed their move towards abstraction in joint exhibitions in 1932 (Tooth's) and 1933 (Lefevre). This became the abiding direction of her work, epitomised by the pioneering piercing of the block, and coincided with experiments in collage , photograms and prints . Establishing links with the continental avant garde , the couple visited the Parisian studios of Arp, Brancusi, Mondrian, Braque and Picasso. They joined Abstraction-Création , and were major figures in Paul Nash's Unit One grouping and the associated publication edited by Herbert Read (1934). In 1935 they were instrumental in restricting the 7&5 to abstract work, thus paving the way for a fertile period of constructivism enhanced by artist refugees from totalitarian Europe (Gropius, Moholy-Nagy, Breuer, Gabo). This culminated in the publication of Circle: International Survey of Constructive Art (1937), edited by Nicholson, Gabo and the architect Leslie Martin, and designed by Hepworth and Sadie Martin.

Such utopianism was curtailed by the war, and Hepworth and Nicholson evacuated to St Ives, Cornwall. They stayed with Margaret Mellis and Adrian Stokes at Little Park Owles, Carbis Bay. Domestic demands and lack of space restricted Hepworth to small sculpture and painting until, on moving to Chy-an-Kerris, Carbis Bay in 1942, she secured a studio. Her first major solo exhibition (Temple Newsam, Leeds 1943) was followed by a monograph by William Gibson (Barbara Hepworth: Sculptress, 1946). She was prominent amongst St Ives artists, forming a focus in 1949 for the establishment of the Penwith Society of Artists with Nicholson, Peter Lanyon and others, and helping to attract international attention to the group's exhibitions. Although Hepworth's contribution to the 1950 Venice Biennale was dogged by comparisons with Moore, two retrospectives - in Wakefield (1951) and London (Whitechapel 1954) - and Read's monograph (1952) confirmed her post-war reputation.

She bought Trewyn Studio, St Ives in 1949, where she lived after her divorce from Nicholson two years later. She visited Greece in 1954 in an effort to recover from the sudden death of Paul Skeaping (1953). Hepworth was especially active within, and on behalf of, the modernist artistic community in St Ives during its period of post-war international prominence. Her experience of the Cornish landscape was acknowledged in her choice of titles. In a wider context, Hepworth also represented a link with pre-war ideals in a climate of social and physical reconstruction; this was exemplified by her two sculptures for the South Bank site of the Festival of Britain (1951). Public commissions and greater demand encouraged her to employ assistants for preliminary work - including Denis Mitchell and Dicon Nance - and to produce bronze editions . Hepworth's international standing was confirmed by the Grand Prix of the 1959 São Paolo Bienal, which came amid honorary degrees, the CBE (1958) and the DBE (1965), and a second Whitechapel exhibition (1962) and a European tour (1964).

In 1964, Single Form was erected outside the United Nations building, New York as a memorial to the Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld. Hepworth served as a Tate trustee (1965-72), donating six works in 1964 and a further nine in 1967 prior to the 1968 retrospective at the Gallery. The catalogue raisonné by Alan Bowness (the sculptor's son-in-law) included in J.P. Hodin's 1961 monograph was extended in 1971. With her long-standing friend the potter Bernard Leach, she was awarded the Freedom of St Ives in 1968 as an acknowledgement of her importance to the town. After a long battle with cancer, she died there on 20 May 1975 in a horrific fire at her home. The studio was designated the Barbara Hepworth Museum in the following year and, on coming under the Tate's aegis in 1980, secured an unrivalled collection of her work for the Gallery. Since then, scholarly interest has focused on her status as one of the few women artists to achieve international prominence.

Matthew Gale April 1997 BBC - Bradford & West Yorkshire - Hepworth comes home to Wakefield 14:16 GMT, Monday, 30 November 2009 Hepworth comes home to Wakefield A world class art gallery is taking shape on the banks of the river Calder in Wakefield. Celebrating the life and work of Wakefield sculptor Barbara Hepworth, it will be the country's third largest art gallery outside London. The Hepworth Wakefield will also be a new home for the city's impressive and expansive art collection. Gallery director Simon Wallis says: "It is really a chance to celebrate that Barbara Hepworth came from Wakefield." Standing on the footbridge looking towards what will eventually be the gallery's entrance, hard hat placed firmly on head, Simon is pleased with the way things are going. He says: "It's been an unbelievable journey over the past year or so. When I first took up the post, the foundations had literally only just come out of the ground so there was really very little to see.

"There's been a phenomenal transformation over the last year and it's an incredible privilege to be around the architects and the builders who have made this happen." The gallery has been designed to hold major works by Barbara Hepworth who was born and bred in Wakefield. Its centrepiece will be a gift from the Hepworth estate of over thirty original sculptures by the artist - many of which have never been seen in public before. Simon Wallis says he hopes the Hepworth Wakefield will finally see the city reclaiming its artistic legacy. He says: "Wakefield was the birthplace of modern British sculpture, with both Barbara Hepworth and [Castleford's] Henry Moore being born and bred in West Yorkshire. "We want to explore some of the Yorkshire roots in that artistic legacy." Designed by award-winning architect David Chipperfield, the Hepworth Wakefield is certainly eye-catching from the outside with its blocks, sheer sides and sloping roofs serving as a contrast with the nearby historic waterfront buildings. Simon believes its appearance reflects its future role: "It's an extraordinarily sculptural building from any perspective and it's a fascinating one, certainly when you get inside." And inside the Hepworth Wakefield is where the building really starts to make sense.

At the moment the galleries are just echoing and empty spaces, lit by huge windows overlooking the river Calder - but they have clearly been created with one purpose in mind. Simon Wallis explains: "These spaces have character even before you put works of art in them. This room here is specifically designed for the Hepworth gift. "All of the works that have not been seen publically before will be installed in here and this space has actually been designed to follow the proportions of Hepworth's studio in St Ives [in Cornwall]. "What Chipperfield has created here is an almost extraordinary, cathedral-like space." As well as playing host to many works by Barbara Hepworth - together with equally-famous local lad Henry Moore - the gallery will also be the new home for Wakefield's art collection which, until recently, was held in a small Victorian town house on the other side of the city. Simon says art lovers might be surprised by the size of the city's collection: "People were only able to experience about seven percent of the collection which had been built up since the 1930s. "Finally we can get the majority of that collection out.

In many ways it's been a hidden gem." With an expected 200,000 visitors a year and enjoying close ties with the Arts Council and the Tate Gallery, the Hepworth Wakefield looks set to be a major pull for art lovers not only in West Yorkshire but also far beyond. Simon Wallis says he expects the gallery will have a big impact on the cultural and economic life of Wakefield: "I think people are just beginning to understand what a difference we are going to make to the city. "Two hundred thousand visitors a year will be coming to Wakefield and that makes an enormous contribution to the economy. "It's not just about a world class engagement with culture, it's about what we put back into the economy of Wakefield and how we put Wakefield on the national and international map almost overnight when we open." "I hope it's somewhere people are really moved by. A place that people want to come back to often" Simon Wallis, Hepworth Wakefield director As the Hepworth gradually takes shape on Wakefield's waterfront, it seems that the city could be on the verge of a revolution of sorts.

So what is the lasting impression Simon wants visitors from near and far to take away from the gallery once it opens its doors in a couple of years' time? Simon says: "I hope it's somewhere people are really moved by. A place that people want to come back to often. "I want people to have a reason to come back on a regular basis and just enjoy being in a building that gives you a different view of Wakefield." Early portrait of sculptor Barbara Hepworth donated to Wakefield gallery | Art and design | The Guardian Barbara Hepworth Early portrait of sculptor Barbara Hepworth donated to Wakefield gallery Painting acquired by American collector before sitter’s identity was known will go on display for first time as centrepiece of exhibition Ethel Walker’s portrait of Barbara Hepworth. Photograph: Tom Arber/Hepworth Wakefield Monday 11 May 2015 07.42 EDT Last modified on Monday 11 May 2015 19.00 EDT Close This article is 1 year old The identity of the meek young woman in the blue dress, with the dreamy expression and downcast eyes was forgotten for more than half a century.

In the painting she looked what she was, a dutiful and conventional 17-year-old schoolgirl. But she would grow up to be one of the most famous and respected British sculptors of the 20th century, and a formidable and combative personality. Newly identified as the earliest known portrait of Barbara Hepworth , painted around 1920 by Ethel Walker, the painting has come back to the UK as a gift from an American collector to the Hepworth Wakefield gallery in the Yorkshire town where the sculptor was born. “It’s a thrilling acquisition, we have no really good early image of Hepworth and it is a beautiful painting by Ethel Walker, who is now little known but a very interesting artist in her own right. She has come home,” said curator Eleanor Clayton. The collector, a lover of Walker’s work, bought the large canvas for £1,000 as a portrait of an unknown young woman. Cleaning revealed an early label identifying the sitter as Hepworth. It seemed so unlikely that he contacted Hepworth’s estate for more information. Comparison with early photographs, before Hepworth adopted a more self-consciously arty hairstyle – described by Clayton as “Princess Leia headphones” – confirmed the identity.

Despite this information hugely increasing the painting’s value, the collector presented it as a gift to the gallery named in Hepworth’s honour, which holds a valuable archive of her work. The portrait will go on display for the first time as the centrepiece of an exhibition on Hepworth in Yorkshire , timed to coincide with a retrospective at Tate Britain . The Hepworth Wakefield will show very late works, the abstract sculptures in stone, metal and wood that made her internationally famous, many made in her studio at St Ives, where she died aged 72 in a fire probably caused by a cigarette dropped by the chain-smoker artist. There will be a separate display on her early life, including startling teenage work, and family photographs on display for the first time. The earliest watercolours, many made as gifts for school friends, are technically excellent but utterly conventional, including a ringleted Victorian girl in a straw bonnet which could be the cover of a sentimental period romance. Another watercolour shows the house at Robin Hood’s Bay that was her family’s holiday home for many years.

She recalled creeping out of her attic bedroom at dawn to wander by herself along the shore, collecting pebbles and bits of driftwood, before the rest of the household woke and recalled her to family duties. Clayton believes the seaside village was where she met the much older Walker, who spent her summers there and her winters in Chelsea. Walker was born in 1861, trained with Walter Sickert and in 1900 became the first female member of the New English Art Club, where she first exhibited the Hepworth portrait. She was a redoubtable figure, renowned for stopping women in the street and denouncing them for destroying their natural beauty by wearing makeup. Nevertheless, she was known for her sensitive portraits of women, including one of Vanessa Bell, Virginia Woolf’s sister, in the Tate collection. Hepworth’s soft face-framing hairstyle dates the portrait to around 1920, shortly before she escaped the bonds of dutiful family life. She won a local authority scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London, and adopted bohemian life with gusto. Clayton hopes the portrait will not only give visitors a striking glimpse of the young Hepworth, but will help revive interest in Walker.

“There was an exhibition after her death in 1951, but since then very little. It’s nice to think putting this painting on display will be a double whammy, and could lead to a long overdue reassessment of the quality of Walker’s work too.” • Hepworth in Yorkshire, Hepworth Wakefield 16 May–6 September. BBC NEWS | UK | England | Bradford | Hepworth gallery gets �4.9m boost Hepworth gallery gets ï¿½4.9m boost Works by Barbara Hepworth at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park A new art gallery featuring the work of Wakefield-born sculptor Dame Barbara Hepworth is set to transform her home city thanks to a major funding boost. The gallery, to be designed by renowned architect David Chipperfield, has secured ï¿½4.9m of lottery funds. It will house the city's collection of 20th Century British art, including 30 original Hepworth plasters. The new site will open in 2008 and form a key part of the city's historic waterfront conservation area.

Fiona Spiers, regional manager for the Heritage Lottery Fund, said: "Barbara Hepworth is one of the most popular 20th century sculptors and what better place than Wakefield, her birthplace, to house some of her work in such a dynamic setting. Cultural map "This ambitious project will transform this area of Wakefield by using its historic and artistic heritage to act as a catalyst for further economic regeneration for the city and its surrounding areas. "However, the hard work starts here for the partners to secure the remainder of the funding for this flagship project, which will undoubtedly put Wakefield firmly on the cultural and tourist map of Yorkshire and beyond." The Arts Council has already agreed to put in ï¿½5m and Wakefield Council has applied for further funding from regional development agency Yorkshire Forward. Sir Alan Bowness, son-in-law of Barbara Hepworth and former director of the Tate Gallery, said: "It is wonderful news that the Heritage Lottery Fund has agreed to support the Wakefield art gallery project.

"David Chipperfield's building will provide the perfect home for the collection of original plaster sculptures that the family is giving to Wakefield, Barbara Hepworth's birthplace." The project will also allow works by some of the most significant British artists in the 20th century, including Anthony Cato, Ben Nicholson, LS Lowry and Henry Moore, who was born just a few miles from the proposed gallery site. Hepworth Wakefield | Art and design | The Guardian Kenn Taylor recounts the 25 year history of the pioneering gallery and talks to its new director, Francesco Manacorda Published: 13 Sep 2012 The Northerner Barbara Hepworth's 'Hospital Drawings' on show in Wakefield A daughter's visit to hospital led to a fascinating series of works that made the artist believe that there is "a close affinity between the work and approach both of physicians and surgeons, and painters and sculptors." Alan Sykes dons his consultant's gown Published: 5 Sep 2012

Question: The new Hepworth Gallery is in which town, the birthplace of sculptor Barbara Hepworth?
Answer: Wakefield